Brian Cook's philosophy for a better AFL

Geelong chief executive Brian Cook turns 60 at the end of this year and by any definition must be regarded the most successful club boss in the competition.

In his time at the helm of two radically different football clubs at opposite sides of the country he has overseen five premierships, at least three major internal reviews, two onfield rebuilds and is credited with transforming the Geelong Football Club from broke basket-case to powerhouse.

Having turned down lucrative offers from at least two clubs – Gold Coast and North Melbourne – in recent years, he has committed to the Cats until the end of 2016.

Cook’s Geelong has remained a profit-making ladder leader despite losing its dual premiership coach and best player and through a change of president with a change of style although still a firm believer in the good behaviour mantra.

In 2000, Cook was heavily favoured in some circles to replace Ian Collins as the game’s football operations boss, but his candidature was trumped when Ron Evans and Bill Kelty chose to woo AFL players' boss Andrew Demetriou.

In 2003, Cook presented to the commission as a shortlisted candidate to become the CEO of the competition, again losing out to Demetriou. This time around Demetriou’s lieutenant Gillon McLachlan was a shorter-priced favourite to take the top job than even Demetriou 11 years ago.

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What then possessed Cook to throw his hat into the ring yet again? In fairness he was approached and, despite chairman Mike Fitzpatrick’s denial on Wednesday, the commission’s eight-week international executive search unearthed no serious challengers to McLachlan outside of the AFL system.

The commission ultimately targeted three key candidates, all well known to the game. One was Cook, who took the opportunity to deliver to the game’s governors his views on the shortcomings within the AFL system. Cook told the commission that the league’s leadership style needed to change.

On Friday, once the dust had settled on McLachlan’s appointment, Cook remained reluctant to detail his vision for an ethical values driven competition similar to that he helped build at Geelong.

But Cook’s contemporaries and even Andrew Demetriou would be familiar with his firm belief that the AFL should have a meaningful mission statement. Right now that statement includes no stated values, simply the edict that all of the game’s leaders remain its custodians and have a responsibility to leave the competition better than they found it.

Cook’s runs significantly deeper. As do those of pretty much every team in the competition and more and more club boards. The Geelong chief reportedly told the commission that, rather than simply punish clubs for breaking rules and codes, the AFL should adopt a Leading Teams-style approach in an attempt to set an example of the right way to conduct their sporting business.

Describing the AFL as a ‘'top-down’' organisation, deeply analytical and one which optimised its resources and allocated them accordingly to ensure efficiency; Cook envisioned a national league with shared values and a shared mission.

Cook’s impressive football and career pedigree has developed in tandem with some tough personal times. Twice married and twice separated, he is the product of a tough upbringing he has occasionally baulked at detailing publicly, his famous partnership with Frank Costa remained all the more intriguing as much for the differences between them.

And yet Cook’s Geelong flourished under the leadership he based upon Costa’s trailblazing ''character-first''; a program introduced into the Costa business during the 1990s. Costa remains a friend and a father figure while Cook recently also lost his own father whose care he oversaw and whom he saw almost every day.

He describes instilling true change in organisations as a generational exercise. While Cook did not suggest that club indiscretions and scandals such as those witnessed most recently at Adelaide, Melbourne and Essendon could have been avoided by a more values-driven AFL, his strong belief is that a shared vision and mission is based as much upon preventing trouble as tackling it.

Geelong’s own mission statement begins by stating that Geelong be ''The Greatest Team of All'' and includes a list of values which has changed just once in his time at the club. That was when the word Integrity was added to Unity, Precision, Adventurous, Respect, Conviction, Commercial and Considered. Cook’s ambition is that such values become a continuum.

There have been strong signs over the past week that the AFL’s culture and that of the game itself will change significantly despite the fact that the new chief has worked within the organisation for 14 years and was the successful product of Andrew Demetriou’s long-term succession planning.

Cook did not want to discuss his presentation to the AFL Commission for obvious reasons and would only confirm that he had spoken of his firm belief in organisations with shared values and a shared mission. ‘‘I wanted the opportunity to express that point of view,’’ he said.

‘‘I think the AFL is a very good organisation [and] with those it could be a great one."